Ashley Cain

As you may have gathered, it is taking me some time to be convinced that Gracie Gold is the future of American Ladies skating.

But with Ashley Cain, I was convinced straight away after seeing her SP at the 2013 Nebelhorn Trophy. And her FS just cemented my opinion.

Of course, we are all talking about Radionova, because she won the Gold in her first senior international. And that is a magnificent achievement that should be talked about. But, we have known how good Radionova is for a few years now. Ashley Cain, on the other hand, just came out of the blue. Well, for us outside America, anyway!

But to win Bronze in your first senior international event as a singles skater, and to only be beaten by well-known names like Elena Radionova and Miki Ando, is some achievement as well.

And this was no fluke - Cain was 3rd in the SP (behind Radionova and Ando), and 2nd in the FS (behind only Radionova; Ando was 4th).

Ashley Cain is just so beautiful to watch on the ice. You would not think that she has only just come back from Pairs and, hence, is less experienced in singles skating than her peers.

I really can see her having a big future within Team USA. OK, so if we assume that Wagner and Gold are 2 of the girls going to Sochi, then I can't see Cain getting the third slot. There's just too many candidates - Czisny, Nagasu, Zhang, Cesario, Gao, Zawadski...

But if Wagner, Czisny and one or two of the other skaters retire after Sochi, then Cain has a good shot for Pjeongchang. She already has a good foundation on which to build over the next 4 years.

In summary, I think Ashley Cain deserves a thread in the Fan Fest forum. Because I have a feeling we will be talking a lot about her over the next few years...!!!

Pity about the fall, but everything else was faultless. I suppose it was a risk sending her to the Nebelhorn, but I can totally understand the Federation's decision. This performance was undoubtedly the swaying point.

After seeing 2 different performances of this FS, I am more convinced than ever!

Joshua teamed up with Caitlin Yankowskas, but had injuries so they could not do the GP last year. In April this year, he and Becky Bereswill teamed up.

Thanks Doris.

I did look at Josh's Wikipedia page, but I've got to the stage that I'm wary of what Wikipedia says.

You see, a couple of weeks ago, I went onto Kristina Zaseeva's Wikipedia, and I noticed a lot of details that were plain wrong. Well, they were wrong for Kristina, anyway - they were actually Polina Korobeynikova's details!

So, now I prefer to hear stuff from somewhere else as well just to confirm that Wikipedia is right.

Mind you, getting back to Ashley Cain, and I found out some interesting stuff about her on her Wikipedia article. Namely, her parentage. I didn't realise that she was a skating child (Mum was an ice dancer; Dad was a pairs skater), or that neither parent is American (Mum is Canadian; Dad is Australian).

Given how positive everything is looking for Australian figure skating at the moment, I wonder will the Aussie federation be making enquiries about Ashley's future plans...

My immediate thoughts were the same. She is obviously extremely talented, but the math gets complicated. The odds of being on a championship team for the US are so very tough. Just thinking about how much satisfaction she could achieve, especially under the CoP system, by simply having the opportunities and exposure to Championship events that she would have if representing Australia - make it a no brainer in my opinion.

First would come ISU points through visibility at Senior B events in lovely locations. Then would come invitations to Grand Prix events. Then would come 4CC every year. Then would come Worlds. Then could come the Olympics.

The magnitude of uncertainties if she stays on track with the US are considerable. Would love to see her out there competing - not struggling through summer events, haggling for B's, then finding her season done by the middle of January.